Is Caesar, the Planet of the Apes re-reboot, back on track?

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Fox had put the kibosh on the Scott Frank (MINORITY REPORT) re-imagining of CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES entitled CAESAR. Frank and his producer Scott Rudin walked away from the project when they met with resistance from Fox over what direction the film should take.

Well, it seems that Fox has never really lost track of the film. Presumably having found a more pleasing angle to go with, former chairman of News Corporation Peter Chernin has been handed the producer reins (Chernin, a huge fan of the series, has been vying for a new APES film since ’92). They’ve also brought along writer Jamie Moss (STREET KINGS) to structurally redo Frank’s script, and original writers Rick Jaffa (THE RELIC, EYE FOR AN EYE) and Amanda Silver (THE RELIC, THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE) to polish the dialogue.

So what does this mean for the direction of CAESAR? Frank’s original intent was to bring us a much harder and more intelligent piece of sci-fi. But right now, signs seem to indicate that they’re just going to dumb it down. We’ll get an even better idea once a director announcement is made, which is expected to happen soon as Fox and Chernin seem very eager to get the ball rolling on this.